PHILADELPHIA - The only thing reliable about this Celtics team is its unreliability. This was a Game 6 close-out road game following a home victory in Game 5. The Big Four core group is now 2-5 in such games. They shoulda won Game 2. They shoulda won Game 4. And after playing a truly abysmal game here in Wednesday night’s Game 6, they are in a position where they had damn well better win Game 7 Saturday if they wish to avoid feeling miserable for the rest of their lives over a colossal lost opportunity to get to the NBA Finals. Continue reading below So the consequence of Wednesday night’s 82-75 Philadelphia 76ers triumph over the Celtics is that there will be a 22d Game ... Continue reading →
The Celtics have been doing business like this for 55 years. In a 2-2-1-1-1- series, they take ownership of Game 5. Game 5 is a mini-7. Teams that win Game 5 in a 2-2-1-1-1 series go on to win the series 83 percent of the time. A very disproportionate percentage of that 83 belongs to the Boston Celtics. Game 5 is damn near as important as any Game 7. Ask Larry Bird, who used to conduct annual seminars on the subject. Monday night’s outcome was the one any serious student of both Celtics and NBA history would have expected. Final score: Boston 101, Philadelphia 85. But this was no wire-to-wire butt-kicking. No, no, no. Continue reading below This was a weird one. With 3:49 remaining ... Continue reading →